I may regret it later but sometimes I just need to convey my controversial thoughts.

Never regret, Brock. You do your Self a dis-service.
Why do I link so much?
Mostly I link what I’ve checked myself and that petard one was curly cos I’d never analysed what it meant - for some stupid reason I thought a petard was a sorta pendant cos in Oz the word hoist usually means to hoist a sail or flag.
I like having fun with language but I’m well aware that there’re terms and things used in Oz and UK that Americans may not be familiar with. Why else would y’all re-make some TV shows?
I am writing to interest or entertain anyone who wants to read my comments not just the smartest.

I don’t try to act any particular way.
I like to get things to sound as right as they can … for me.
I can spend an hour over a line; it’s part of my obsessive compulsive madness I s’pose.
Manipulate? Everyone does that in some form or another, to a greater or lesser degree even, from cradle to grave.
Smileys? I only know   and using the keys ; :  lol and ).
I don’t do gratuitous - if I remember I try to take the edge off a comment.
I like having fun in layering double entendres as well as ambiguity and tautology and finishing off with a to let the reader know I’m aware I was being silly.

Primarily I writefor my entertainment because I’m a self-centred fucker.

Others may give me flak for this

I forbid it.

LuckyJohn, it’s “Hoisted by his/your own petard” or “Hoisted by my own petard”.

I know.
I was amusing myself with the throwing ofucking bombs.
Did I miss?

‘death to all who can’t be white’

I haven’t made that clear enough in my postings?

I’ll try harder next time.

Brock, everyone has their own style of commenting. It’s part of how they express themselves online. At least LJ isn’t using TXT speak.

Les, I don’t think most commenters here use particular styles. Style in this context is defined as “those components or features of a literary composition that have to do with the form of expression rather than the content of the thought expressed” and I just don’t see most adhering to such a limiting process.

LJ does have a commenting style generally. Some others do also. Moloch’s style, for example, is commonly utilized to shock or anger the reader. Distant Claws’ style is to suggest knowledge of difficult subject matter to instruct or to go to the very metaphysical limits of a concept or situation.

Commenting styles can be annoying or they can be comforting in their familiarities. LJ is very clever sometimes and he is, without a doubt, accepting and forgiving. I just hate when people use smileys in an attempt to minimize another’s negative response. If you feel it and you say it, claim it; don’t inhibit it after the fact.

I wish you guys would be so forthright with me. How do I come across to you? Do you pass my comments by? Do you think I’m weird? I’ve made some really weird comments in the past so I know I run the risk of being considered laughable. So let me know if I communicate badly or if I’m too hard on others. Let me know so I can learn to be a positive influence on this site.

Smilies are often used to distinguish between a serious and joking comment.  Or using a blushing smilie instead of typing “I was embarrassed by the misspelling that caused the misunderstanding, blah-blah...”

I always read your comments, Brock, and I ignore Moloch, smile at Sadie, nod along with Les, enjoy KPG, roll my eyes at Consi, often but not always agree with Elwed, grin with GeekMom…

Oh well, I was trying to be clever but just ended up sounding sort of dumb.  Keep commenting!  Yeah, you’re a little wierd but is anybody who hangs around here “normal” and what the hell does that mean, anyway?

I hope this doesn’t sound narcissistic but, with very few exceptions, I have read nearly every comment since I started commenting here.  I enjoy reading what people say, how they formulate their arguments, and what joke they have to add.  How people react, think, and so forth really interests me.

Brock I have read everything you have posted with never having to skim cause you don’t waste people’s time with stupid shit.  Something I appreciate.  I have found your comments enjoyable just like everyone else’s.

But to each his own.  Let LJ comment how ever he wants, it is what gives him character.  This site would really be boring if no one had a “style” to how they write, think, and say things.

But come on, are you really going to say that LJ’s comments don’t make you bust out loud laughing every once in awhile.  Maybe because of the age gap between him and me I find a lot of the shit he says funny and fresh…

I skim sections of thread that I lose track in or don’t feel bothered to read or engage in, this has no more likelihood of being one person over another unless if the comments are extreemely long and therefore it would be too much effort to engage (which probably describes my own comments to be honest)

Everyone here has some likeable aspect (ie Moloch has a slight rebelious cuteness), simply don’t allow any unlikable ones to register and no problem will exist. A lot of people on SEB are very patient, which I apreciate and consider of overriding importance. Some commenters like to joke, and as in outside life I rarely understand the joke but I know that it was a joke and I appreciate it, because joking shows mindframe and intentions, it’s a way of showing the score. Use of smilies helps set the context and mindframe sometimes. Use of hypelinks for definitions can be ignored by anyone who knows what they mean and help those who don’t (who may be outside the discussion)

To explain, the reason for my lean on probing the metaphysical is that my current needs concern the security that gets associated with such things, there are also unresolved conflicts within myself, and the commenting helps me realise stuff and make available my own stuff for anyone who may find it useful. My investigations into this line of inquiry are sometimes by necessity blended with what I know of science, I use philosophy as a tool

Brock:

1) You vary a lot. As a general observation, it seems to depend on whether the topic is personal to you or not.
2) I’ve never passed reading your comments.
3) Yes, but only because you are forgiving of Hawaiian shirts.

I wish you guys would be so forthright with me.

I’ve seen a coupla comments of yours that have attracted the ire of one other that I can think of.
These days I don’t normally do nasty shit to nice people and you seem like nice people. I used to be really nasty bastard and treated ‘nice’ as a weakness; something to thrust at and break.

How do I come across to you?

Right now? As though you need permission to live and breath; it’s time to give others the Wednesday finger and join Frank and do it your way. See, here’s where I’d put a link to Frank cos some might not know who the fuck I’m talking.
As Zilch once said to me when I went into a self-effacing/doubting spiral: Give yourself a break.

Do you pass my comments by?

Never! I always read every word you writeand you’ve written nothing (until This particular bit) that’s pressed any of My buttons.

Do you think I’m weird?

Well that’s a first - only half my stuff ‘printed’.

Do you think I’m weird?

Of course; you’re unique … just like me; isn’t it liberating? This is where I’d normally put a smiley inviting you to smile at ourselves with me cos ultimately we’re ALL rather laughable at our sense of importance on this speck in the universe.

I’ve made some really weird comments in the past so I know I run the risk of being considered laughable.

So what?
A quote that almost fits comes to mind: If we waited till we could do it perfectly we’d never do anything.
What are we doing here?
Are we living for ourselves or others?
I dunno about anyone else but I live for me; if I can impart anything useful for someone else on the way, cool; if not stick it in ya pipe and smoke it ... I was gonna say: shove it up your arse, but you may have taken offence. Here’s where I’d normally put a gratuitous smiley.
I’m playing in this playground for two reasons: I’m not bored yet and I’m too lazy to find another playground and not enough …
I’m playing in this playground for Three reasons: I’m not bored yet and I’m too lazy to find another playground and not enough people have told me to fuck off and … this is where I’d put another smiley so you would HOPEfully smile along with me.

So let me know if I communicate badly or if I’m too hard on others.

What? And become manipulative like me?
You gave Me a long lecture about how you want me to be and now you’re asking us how we want You to be.
If I want dumbed down fucking bland I’ll join the xian rapture boards or a church.

Let me know so I can learn to be a positive influence on this site.

And after all this I’m sure it was all a tongue in the cheek waiting to reel in the paranoid me.
Well, it worked … but I don’t care. 

I’ve always assume John put the links in for Americans, because of the difference in US and UK/OZ speak. I’ve seen people get confused by phrases we both use, where we understand each other, but the Septics (or Shermans, if I’m being polite) don’t.

Smileys are there because there is no body language/voice tone on the net/text. It’s always useful to know when some-one is extracting the Michael.

You should know how I feel about your comments by now, Brock. You’re not a Special Guest Bastard for no reason you know. I read every comment and entry you write. I appreciate your insight and humor.

If anything I’m disappointed you don’t comment more.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I do find it helpful.

To those who advocate rampant smiley use, I’ve always felt that if you communicate well enough, you don’t really need them. To me they’re kind of like what multiple exclamation marks are to others. Anyway, enough of my views on that.

So now that I’ve derailed this thread, allow me to turn it back over to McCain bashing. His commenting style sucks and it’s sad that he’s trying to manipulate everyone. It could be worse though: he could be a member here.

First, for the record, LJ, please don’t stop using the links or alter your style. I enjoy it too much. I rarely need the actual definition links, but it let’s me know when you’re using a paticular word because that word is exactly right and you’ve even gone to the trouble to look it up to make sure. It puts it in a definitive context.

Of course, I’m a word guy....

Brock, you come across pleasant and interesting, but I don’t feel like I know you through your words. Many posters here, I know so well from their posts that I can predict how they’ll respond to most things, much like my friends in the real world (and doesn’t that have interesting implications. Like the rest of you don’t live in the same world that I do. That’s silly. Hmm, need some new words here I think.)

Which is neither here nor there, good nor bad. Just an answer to your question.

One that inevitably leads me to wonder what people make of my periodic posts. Hmmm....

lol. I’m compelled to ego-fish and see where my comments stand, but at the moment I’ll say the following.

LJ and DC have unusual styles. I can pick their comments out of a large thread as I scroll past them. It isn’t just content, but the structure of the paragraphs, that tips me off. I tend to read Brock because usually the guy’s got a personal foot to put forward where he posts, and, like Les, I get hopeful he’ll post more often.

That said, I hold nothing against lurking; all it means is you don’t think you have the resources to contribute.

I didn’t intend to ego-fish, Patness. I offered criticism so I figured I should open myself up to some as well. Whatever is said about me will be taken with a grain of salt as well as an earnest desire to understand why it was said.

Still, you have every right to ask how you’re perceived as well and I will tell you that I find your comments, as a whole, to be well considered and enlightening. You have an economy of words manner, too, that says the most with the least excess. All in all, a valuable voice for the site.

I do need to post and comment at SEB more often because when I think I’ve said something worth being said and it is taken well, it pleases me and that pleasure spills over into my life in general.  Go ahead and say it! - I’m a freakin’ mush-head.

I’ve seen people get confused by phrases we both use, where we understand each other, but the Septics (or Shermans, if I’m being polite) don’t.

How true. For example quoting you out of context from the smoking thread:

Sometimes when I’ve a had a few pints I really want a fag or two- which works out really expensive

(I’m not trying to use a homophobic slur here: I just found it funny.)

I’m with Les on the notion that everyone has a unique style. Some of us, most notably Elwed, tend to be very terse and to-the-point; others, ala Distant Claws, are sometimes excessively long-winded and prolix. KPG’s style can be described as highly impassioned, Consi’s as somewhat cool and formal, and DOF’s as gentle and down-to-earth. Still others have styles that seem to reflect a batshit-insane persona, such as Moloch and our dear departed Don.

LuckyJohn and Moses strike me as unique, quite eccentric (particularly the latter), but also touchingly humorous and well-meaning. A LuckyJohn post simply would not be a LuckyJohn post without an excessive number of smilies, oddly linked pages, and scattered sentences that just trail off.

So what do I think of you, Brock? I must admit that you are and always have been one of my very favorite regulars. I’m guessing that you’re probably close to my age (I’ll be thirty in June), yet your comments always reveal much wisdom that seems more characteristic of someone twice your age. You have a knack for cutting through people’s bullshit.

Oddly enough the success of SEB is part of why I don’t comment as much as I once did. Quite often one of you regulars — or even more commonly several of you regulars — have already said what I was going to say.

And I always feel a little silly saying, “And that goes for me too!”

Some of us, most notably Elwed, tend to be very terse and to-the-point;

Terse?!

Terse?!

Nominated for funniest comment of the day